BlizzCon 2016 World of Warcraft Q&A

It's time for one of the biggest events of BlizzCon: the Q&A panel where BlizzCon attendees get to ask Blizzard their burning questions about World of Warcraft. This year is even more special for us, as our very own TradeChat is hosting this year's panel!

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Is crafted gear going to scale up?

The short answer is yes. Still trying to figure out the right way. We may use Oblitirum, maybe a new type. But yes, we want professions to make relevant gear even in 7.2.

Any plans to address issues with low population realms?

We've talked about it, it's not good to limit people. We want to do a realm of connected realms to combine certain realms into a larger, mega realm.

Now that Gnomes have been playing with the light... would Gnomes maybe experiment with nature magic, becoming Druids and Shaman? Or Paladins?

This would make it too easy for the gnome only guilds. (Joke.)

In all seriousness, we have broadened classes and races combinations over the years. When we think of Gnomes, they're handy--they have the arcane and magical side. This isn't to say that it couldn't happen in the future, but we've drawn the line.

PvP vs PvE balancing... how does it work?

PvP balance is much harder than PvE because it uses the full class. We use a lot of data to tweak it. The PvP team, especially in Legion, has been really responsive to the meta with quick fixes.

In addition, Legion giving us new balancing options for PvP due to its system has made it easier. But we do really look at representation and overall compensation. We also look for the fun of the game, even if it's "balanced."

What happened to Madan from the comics?

TL;DR if you love something let it go.

Have you considered pooling Artifact Power so it can be used across specs?

In 7.1.5 and beyond, if you're significantly behind, you will be able to purchase the tomes for order resources. So there are ways to catch up.

But as far as off-spec goes, knowledge should help this here. As soon as you switch over, you will rapidly get your gold traits and several dozen points. Obviously switching main specs is different and won't immediately pay off, but the idea is that you'll be able to catch up quickly.

Where did the Stranglethorn Fishing achievement go, and will it come back?

We are bringing it back in the future. We're aiming for 7.1.5, but do not take it as a promise. The new technology broke it, sharding made it so there wasn't a singular STV so people couldn't win. It's going to be a regionwide--all of North America, maybe the first 50 players who turn it in will get the prize.

Where is Wrathion in Legion?

He's wandering. We'll see him again.

It's very difficult to keep leveling up alts. We want to play alts, not do chores on alts. Will there be more things account-wide?

We try to strike a balance between playing your main and also playing the character you want to progress that has meaningful progression. Trying to take away those chores or less fun experiences--this is all on the table. We talked about the artifact knowledge which will help. We want to look into reputations, even for characters at max reputation.

In 7.1 we made world quests account wide, Suramar as well. We are trying to strike a balance like we said.

Will they update other racial mounts?

In Legion, we knew we'd see a lot of Kodos so we decided to update it. We're always looking to update old mounts as newer content happens and is related.

What's the effective range of the Sunwell? How do Blood Elf paladins function away from it?

Holy magic moves throughout the cosmos, its magic travels through everything in the universe.

Will we ever have the WoW token be able to be bought with currency for race changes, server changes, and more?

Yes. When we designed it, it's meant to be useful for all the services. We launched it smoothly with just the subscription, but we will expand it. It will be able to be Battle.net balance.

Are you ever going to update old vanilla armor sets? And why don't you ever increase the main backpack?

We do try to go back time to time, we take inspiration from them but we don't redo the old one. We also know there's a lot of nostalgia, we don't want to change these and possibly polarize players by taking away something they enjoy that's nostalgic.

As for the backpack, there's been a myth that changing the backpack will cause a lot of problems. It's not that bad. We will do it in the future. However, at the same time, we have been removing backpack space through toy collections and more.

The gear in 7.2 will be inspired by tier 6--so it's related.

Will you be able to have gathering and crafting professions?

We like the choice, helping to define your character. But it does come up all the time, so who knows.

What's in store for the weapon in future expansions, and if they're not going forward, what will we replace them with?

Artifact weapons are confined to Legion. This frees us to make them bolder, let them do wild things; we wouldn't want to commit to the idea that you'll never again get a weapon upgrade.

All that said, people are attached to these weapons. So we can't just replace it with a green weapon that has high DPS in a future expansion.

We hope to, at the end of Legion, let you keep the artifact appearances as permanent transmog. So they will be there in spirit. That said, we loved the gameplay and design, so it will be back in other forms.

Can you set a legendary loot option, so you can gear your offspec without worrying?

It's complicated to keep loot spec, we think people might forget to set two different ones. But people do worry they can't play as prot if they want to get their arms legendary. They are hoping to possibly find a solution.

They're planning to add more legendaries, there's about 8 per spec.

How far in advance do you plan your character arcs? Did you know Garrosh's ultimate fate?

Garrosh was pretty unique, he had a destiny that had to be fulfilled. We didn't know exactly where it would go, initially we wanted it to be heroic and it ended up not quite turning out where it could have gone. But other times, you have someone like Wrathion: we went in blind, we had no idea where he was going.

Cosmetic class accessories were mentioned before (quivers, etc). Were they scrapped?

This wasn't scrapped for artifacts, we just ended up talking about it and artifacts ended up happening right after so we put a pause on it. Like we have a quiver that goes with the artifact bow, and we feel like it does that.

Now we're going to take a look and see what we did accomplish. If there's more left to do, we'll do it.

The Naga in Azsuna are kind of weird. In 7.2, they're in the Tomb of Sargeras. Whose side are the Naga on and what's their deal?

Naga, like Humans, don't always have the same allegiances. Like some may work with the legion, some may not. They have different matriarchies. As far as Azsuna, Azshara certainly is interested in the tidestone. It's a story we'll hopefully expand.

Will there be more content like the withered army training? Have you guys considered how awful it is to be a healer?

...Do you want more?

The scenario was designed to feel progressive, like they're carrying you to victory. That solo scenario was very cool in concept, but it didn't come to fruition perfectly. We hope to have versions of that concept, like maybe unlock new artifact appearances in a similar way. Solo gameplay is cool, the withered army just didn't pan out exactly, and we've learned a lot from it.

Are there still any secrets in the live game that haven't been discovered?

There's a couple, nothing huge.

But if you ask that question in a couple months, the answer will probably be different. Things like that make the world feel larger, feel better. We don't want to overdo it, but we feel like it builds community when done right.

Do you have any plans to make this expansion more alt-friendly?

We talked about this a bit before, we look at every patch that comes out. Alt gameplay is really powerful, players like trying different things.

Why did you pull a Game of Thrones kill on Ysera? Doesn't that contradict lore?

Um, spoilers. Yeah, she dies.

So... heroes make sacrifices in our game. It's happening a lot in Legion. While Ysera, who is now mortal after Twilight of the Aspects, is dead--her spirit does live on. Don't hold on too long for her being gone for good.

We seem to get everything but guild housing.

I love the idea of guild halls and things. We're looking at the idea of supporting different groups, like if you raid with you coworkers across server.

When it comes to guild housing, um, if it's a place that you never visit then what's the point? But if you visit it all the time, you're not playing the game? Those are the two main challenges we're facing.

Now that Vol'jin is dead and the Darkspear have no prominent lore characters? Who will succeed?

Well, we have some plans. There's more to Vol'jin's story. In time. In time. We'll figure it out.

Are we going to see any ranged weapons get new animations?

Yes, we're still working on the system.

Could you tell us about the plans for pet battles?

Yeah, so, it's been an exciting system for those who love it. It has a tremendous amount of depth. We have some interesting plans in the works for a Legion patch: pet battle dungeon.

Why do we have to take extra steps just to change our talents?

We want talents to still feel like a meaningful choice, we didn't want players to be able to swap at will--so we made some friction between the system. It felt like it branched and bloated it to let people do it at whim.

Are there any plans to add something after warforged and titanforged?

Right now we don't think there's a need for it. The whole point for titanforged is it's really, really rare.

Will we be able to play with our friends who belong to the other faction without losing out?

This is a question that comes up--I'm an Alliance guy and I want to play with my Horde friend. But I feel like we have to be careful to make it meaningful to make people feel tied to their faction; it's important to us. If Horde and Alliance could co-exist in harmony, would you have that rivalry?

We do know it can be frustrating.

What's Khadgar's last name?

Khadgar might be his last name...so then you don't know his first name. We'll look into it, maybe get some history going.

Will engineers be able to make a submarine?

Great idea. We don't have any plans, but it's a cool idea--could totally see a watershredder.

Why can't the Undead be paladins?

The way the holy light is used for paladins and priests is different. Priests use it for the preservation. Paladins use it offensively. Undead and demons... actually I am making a terrible argument. I'm kidding. It leaves a sour taste.

Comentado por Frosendreams

Comentado por luxys

Comentado por jjanchan

Great questions so far! I'm leery about the new STV Fishing Extravaganza....region wide? Yikes.

Comentado por Shelassa

on 2016-11-05T18:22:46-05:00

Thanks for the summary, WoWHead. My connection sucks today and the stream keeps crushing, but thanks to you I can follow along :)

Comentado por Ashesofalar

on 2016-11-05T18:22:57-05:00

That is awesome, i was also wondering what happened to wrathion, no doubt plotting something, i bet he'll lead us on some adventure for something legendary >.> and i would like to see kind of what they did in pandaria if you reach exalted on a toon with a faction you could buy those tokens to help your alts along with those reputations. and it's nice to see they're trying to work with professions being relevant in future patches as far as gear goes, start of the expac they're useful then they're not worth much anymore once you start raiding and replacing a good bit of it if not all of it.

Comentado por Polltergeist

on 2016-11-05T18:24:02-05:00

I really wanna know where Wrathion is.. but at least they said we'll see him again!

Comentado por Alcest

on 2016-11-05T18:25:55-05:00

WoW token will be BNet currency? Awesome!

Comentado por stephano2013

on 2016-11-05T18:26:10-05:00

Maybe Wrathion will bring the legacy servers with him

Comentado por Solidsnake

on 2016-11-05T18:29:00-05:00

I was hoping that they would be a bit more transparent on what changes they are making to help more alts since I feel so far behind when i log in to one I only play every once and awhile, then its back to my main due to the progression I made on it.

Comentado por Redsword

on 2016-11-05T18:29:46-05:00

Disappointed by the questions to be fair.

Comentado por likwidd

on 2016-11-05T18:30:10-05:00

Good to hear about the crafted gear, right now it's pretty pointless. The STV fishing event going nationwide... all I can say is I'm glad that I already got that part of the Salty achievement =/

Comentado por Wernria

on 2016-11-05T18:32:36-05:00

Great questions so far! I'm leery about the new STV Fishing Extravaganza....region wide? Yikes.

Region wide and 50 players only to win? out of how many? ~sigh~ Almost not worth trying at that point...

Comentado por Feelthechill

on 2016-11-05T18:33:55-05:00

So happy we will keep our artifact skins for transmog, was gonna be upset if I lost the hidden protection paladin skin in the next expansion

Comentado por Gulver

on 2016-11-05T18:34:04-05:00

If they did something like Pandaria's Commendation systems for reputation, I will be very happy.

Comentado por Tempestarii

on 2016-11-05T18:35:07-05:00

Looking forward to being able to buy my way off servers for gold.

Comentado por tallern

on 2016-11-05T18:36:39-05:00

There already seems to be a fair bit made account wide,attunment/flight achievs/transmog/world quests. Cant really think of much else that can be changed to be made easier for alts.

Comentado por bust0

on 2016-11-05T18:37:34-05:00

Oh, I was always wondering why did they remove the STV fishing event. Hope it will come back soon :)

Comentado por BlitzXFire

on 2016-11-05T18:39:55-05:00

T6 inspired armour is hype. STV is gonna be a %^&*show, wish I had done it earlier...